Victor Frankenstein Isolation Essay

Starting with Victor Frankenstein who is described as “calm and philosophical”, and who is “delighted in investigating the facts relative to the actual world” (66). He usually spends his time “ in vaults and charnel houses” where he admits that his obsession with his work has caused him to “forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time” (p. 50), he further admits that he has “lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit” (78) these lines attest to a driven obsessive nature which borders on fanaticism. According to Mellor, “This separation of masculine work from the domestic affections leads directly to Frankenstein’s downfall”(3). Because of his infatuation when it comes to his work …show more content…
55), is a place that reflects the total isolation from women and his domestic roles. “It mimics features of femininity in a spot reserved for untouchable maleness. No woman ever enters it, and no mention is made of any contact between Frankenstein and a female during the time that he works there” (Randel 530). This isolation is not only affecting his own personal life but it will also affect the result of his work “the monster”. His absence is reflected in his scientific work as he denies the presence of women around him and the traits that they are associated with such as sensitivity he fails to make a beautiful and sensitive creature. Moreover, as he denies his domestic and social roles he fails to consider how his creation would fit in society and interact with people. In this case according to Randel, Victor’s “workshop's semantic role is to signify a momentous absence, rather than to signal an accomplished presence.” (531). Because of Victor’s isolated work environment and his neglecting behaviour towards his domestic responsibilities his experiment does not meet up to the standards he was wishing to …show more content…
From this quote, “I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart” (156), we get a direct and clear idea of what the monster’s goal is and what he is trying to achieve. He does live up to those promises with the subsequent consecration to the lifelong torment of Frankenstein. The monster, “a slave to these impulses” (218) thus counterparts Frankenstein’s devotion to his work in the sense that both male characters have an obsessive and impulsive behaviour which eventually leads their life to spiral out of control. “Mary Shelley, doubtless inspired by her mother’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, specifically portrays the consequences of a social construction of gender that values the male above the female.” (Mellor 2) In this way, the presentation of the central male characters in Frankenstein typifies the male sex as exceedingly self-absorbed and single-minded, or in other words, as the embodiment of Victorian traits in their unreserved neglect of the domestic